24.02.2016 01:00

Well, not learning how to write from scratch, but rather, learning how to write with a fountain pen. You see, as a lefty, there are all manner of things working against me successfully using a fountain pen. You have the whole push-vs-pull hand movement, but more importantly, there is the issue of ink. Specifically, of ink drying times.

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I had lot of the same doubts, being a lefty, when I got curious about fountain pens. But I got over it. The most important thing until you either learn some techniques or get over it is to go for ink and paper combinations that limit the dry time. The Noodlers Bernanke inks are the best. The only places I even noticed dry time when I used it was with paper that are known for long dry time.
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24.02.2016 01:00

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These load out posts have become one of my favourite things I write each month. I find the process of looking at everything I do very rewarding, instead of just noticing the minor changes that I actually pay attention to every month. I think it is a great way to identify what I do, how I do it and how to improve it.
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The biggest change during the last month is that I have added a TWSBI Eco with a Stub nib to my daily carry. I have been using one of my newest inks in it: Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-ryoku. This is the first ink I have that isn’t black.
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I also did something that have been in the back of my head for a while. It all started when I found a box of Pilot Cartridges that I had forgotten about. The thing I have started doing is to just use them up, and to use up my bottle of Lamy Black Ink, before I start using any other black inks.
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This is the method I have been using to avoid getting a huge notebooks collection. I realised that I’m not a fan of the Pilot Ink or the Lamy Ink, but there is no good reason not to use them, and I will never do so unless I just force myself to do it.
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Because, if I don’t take the active choice to use up that before I use anything else, then I’ll just keep using the stuff I prefer, until its so old I can’t use it. There is nothing wrong with the cartridges or the Lamy Ink, I just prefer my other inks.
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The plan now, for both my TWSBI’s is to ink them up with the Lamy ink as soon as they are dry.
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This is my current pen situation:
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Pilot Metropolitan: Inked up with Pilot Cartridges

Lamy 2000: Inked up with Black Lamy Ink.

TWSBI 580AL: Inked up with Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-ryoku.

TWSBI Eco: Inked up with Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-ryoku.

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And the notebooks situation: – I finally completed my A4 notebook that I have been using since September. So I moved that portion of my writing and note taking over to my Midori Travelers Notebook. – Midori Travelers Notebook: I use it for all my long form writing, and I have started to do some sketch noting as well. – Hobonichi Planner: same as always: stuff that are due and appointments. – Field Notes is as always the place I put all my tasks. But I only have 4 left, and I have not ordered any new ones. This means that a major change in this aspect of my day to day life is very close. I’m not going to say what, but I have planned to try something new in this area since in December.
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23.02.2016 01:00

How do you feel about planner notebooks with highly formatted pages? I love seeing images of how people use them, as the pages sometimes look wonderfully dense and textured with text and colors and highlighting. But when it comes to using them myself, I’m a bit reluctant. I make lots of lists on paper, but when it comes to keeping track of appointments and projects, I tend to use digital tools instead. I love to use pens on paper, but for some purposes I have to admit I don’t find it efficient. The image below with blocks of time laid out with different color highlighters is very appealing, but in my day to day life, I know I’d get frustrated by having no way to erase them when meetings were rescheduled! I do like the way these planners prompt you to slot your to-do list items into blocks of time– I think it’s a key part of being organized, as you have to allow yourself time to actually do things!

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I personally prefer doing both planning and task management on paper because of the simplicity and how much easier it is to look in a notebook compared to a complicated calendar or task management app. The formats of a planner is very important, and I think the preference comes down to personal choice and use case.
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I prefer using one with as little formatting as possible because it is more flexible. But there are many places where a highly structured one is important, for example if you run a business with hourly appointments or have a class schedule.
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23.02.2016 01:00

I too experienced the sheer generosity of the people here. After saving up for months fairly early in my pen addiction I finally was able to purchase a Franklin Christoph Model 40. Less than two months into owning it, I somehow lost it (my most expensive pen at the time and the only one I ever lost). After sharing the sad news in the Pen Addict Slack Group I got an unexpected message from Thomas Hall offering to give me his Model 40 because he wasn’t using it much. That was something that totally caught me off guard–that I, a nobody in my perspective, would be the recipient of such generosity from someone I didn’t even know. The generosity of this community shows itself regularly through freely offering ink samples, picking up and shipping of Field Notes only found locally, etc.

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That’s amazing. I just love the stationary community. You are fantastic.
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22.02.2016 01:00

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Goulet posted about something very interesting a few days ago:Midori Traveler’s Notebook Rebranding!. I love my MTN. And I am very excited about the news. The new colour looks amazing.
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I’m a huge fan of the regular sized notebook. And the passport isn’t really something I’m interested in, for a number of reasons, that I’m coming back to in a upcoming post. But they are finally making sure that all the great refills you can get are the same for both options. Which makes the passport sized one much more attractive.
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22.02.2016 01:00

Conid is a small-scale Belgian pen brand. For those of you that never heard of them before: they make fountain pens with a unique filling system: ‘the Bulkfiller’. The Bulkfiller system is quite an engineering feat, and there’s a lot to say about it. That’s why I decided to make this into a separate post. I’ll focus solely on the filling system in this post. You can find the review of the Conid Minimalistica fountain pen here.

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This posts is going to end up costing me a lot of money. Conid have something very interesting. The filling system is interesting. But the thing that got me interested, and pushed me to add it to my wish list is their pens. They have five different pens, they look kind of different, but the key difference between them are ink capacity. I love how they market themselves: exchangeable nibs & maximum ink capacity.
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This is not a cheap pen, but they claim and it looks durable. My two favourite pens from a design perspective is the Lamy 2000 and Visconti Homo Sapiens. But I also love the contemporary look of TWSBI. Conid is the first example I have seen of a pen that can compete with both.
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21.02.2016 01:00

Our children. Mine and yours. All of us who write by hand and advocate its importance and advantages. We who have children will write by hand in front of those children. Through such actions they will learn from us that writing by hand is something one does. We will teach them to do the same.

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A fantastic piece by Mr. Rhone. I’m getting fed up with the “handwriting is going away” posts. Fine, most people write less with pens than they did 100 years ago. But when I look at the various places I have worked over the years, I can’t remember anyone that didn’t use paper. All of them used it for something. Writing down stuff they have to do on post-it’s during a meeting or writing a todo list on a A4 page.
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Why do people use a pen when they have a computer? It is the pragmatic choice. It is just easier to write something down on paper than it is to find a piece of software to do the same thing. Children will also learn how to write by hand for the foreseeable future. The writing essay part of writing can be done on a computer, and the teacher are probably thankful for students that hand in papers written on a computer. But what about math? It is very hard to do what is very simple on paper with a computer without a lot of training.
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There are of course areas where we used to use pen and paper where a computer, or a typewriter is better in every single shape or form. But there are also many areas and use cases where paper is better.
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16.02.2016 01:00

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I just added a new page to the site. One of the things I wanted to do when I started this site was to put some time into explaining how I use pen and paper to manage my day to day life. You can find the first version of it here. I decided to have it as a page instead of a blog post because I’m going to update it from time to time.
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It is a rough first draft. it will be updated from time to time, both in terms of content as my system and tools change, and in terms of some much needed editing.
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I’m also going to set up a Public Github Repo to have easy access to the different versions of the text.
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15.02.2016 01:00

I could write faster than I could type, but without knowing shorthand, this method still wasn’t fast enough to allow me to perfectly transcribe every lecture slide. So I was forced to write smarter, not faster. I’d listen carefully to the lecture while paraphrasing anything that seemed important, in real time, using as few words as possible.

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I have tested this out a few times, where I have used my laptop to take notes in entire subjects, and the result is always the same: I remember way more of what I was told in a lecture or seminar when I take notes by hand, and the same goes when I take notes while reading.
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I manage everything I do at work with pen and paper; a combination of Midori Travelers Notebook, Field Notes and the notebooks we have at work. There is no reason to do everything digital just because I work as a web developer.
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15.02.2016 01:00

The Clairefontaine Basics Life Unplugged notebook is my new favorite notebook. The simple design and wonderful paper, along with the great price of just $9, make this notebook an irresistible tool in my arsenal. If you don’t mind being locked in to a lined-only paper, you owe it to yourself to give Clairefontaine a shot. Who knows — it might be your new favorite paper.

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That looks like a fantastic notebook. Some people dislike lined paper, and I feel the same way from time to time. But lined paper is great for making lists and writing because you waste much less paper when you have lines; or even a grid system if you prefer something a little bit more flexible.
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